Pain in the back(pack)

Children's backpacks tip the scales, test the limits

13 poundsAinsley Tran, 12, seventh grade: "Our teachers give us our textbook to keep at home and they keep one in the classroom so we don't have to take the book back and forth." (Percentage of body weight: 20.5 percent.) (Tribune photo by Keri Wiginton /November 3, 2010)

Equipped with a bathroom scale and a reporter's snoopy — I mean inquisitive — attitude, I headed for Oak Park's Brooks Middle School to find out just how much poundage the students were carrying and to try and figure out if they really needed all that stuff. (See our photos of some of the kids here.)

I got there just in time to welcome the kids arriving early for band practice. Many carried separate, heavy instrument cases (not included in the weigh-in), and a few had gym bags and lunch bags (also not weighed), plus their bulging backpacks.

These are big loads, but especially for some of the younger, smaller kids. And when I learned that some of these kids walked blocks with their bulging loads to get there — phew.

Well aware of the problem, principal Tom Sindelar says students don't haul all this to class. Mini cinch sack backpacks are provided and the big packs aren't allowed in classrooms.

Here's some good news: "As far as we know, there's no link between heavy backpacks and permanent injury or damage to the spine," says Dr. Jeffrey Mjaanes, a pediatric and adult sports medicine specialist at Rush University Medical Center. However, "They do seem to cause shoulder pain and back pain."

Mjaanes says nobody has figured out how much is too much for kids to carry. But professional medical groups recommend a maximum of 10 to 20 percent of body weight. Mjaanes says he sees four or five teens for back pain every day and "carrying heavy loads" is a major factor.

More good news: Only three of 30 kids in my weigh-in had backpacks heavier than 20 percent of their body weight.